Celebrated To Death: Afghan Vet on Memorial Day

Memorial Day 2020. In 2009 at age 23 Erik Edstrom went to Afghanistan as an infantry officer, Army Ranger, and became a Bronze Star Medal recipient. In this Memorial Day of the Covid 19 era, he dug up his journal from the time and on this show shares his valuable insights on war and the real meaning of patriotism and national security. He describes much of the mission in Afghanistan as a “self licking ice cream cone,” and that Taliban “whack-a-mole” policy fails. He questions our current “fetishizing” of the military, not seeing the reality of wars but consuming the sanitized commodity. Veterans need more than a slap on the back, we really serve them and our national security by questioning policies and the expenditure of billions.